The Tralliance May Update focuses on the following four areas:

.travel in Full Preparation Mode

The .travel Registry is counting down to the pre-Authentication period (July/August) and we are currently in the midst of system testing. This period of pre-Authentication is designed to allow authenticating TTPC member associations the time to do so in an orderly manner.

Following pre-Authentication, the Limited Launch will take place from September through November, as prescribed by ICANN. Full launch of the .travel sTLD will be appropriately announced in advance in the media and is anticipated to begin on December 1, 2005.

To meet these premier dates, twenty travel trade associations, from eight countries, have completed Authentication Training and are now “ready, willing and able” to undertake that task in the coming weeks, and years, on behalf of their association’s members. In addition, travel entities who are not members of authenticating associations and are registered with Dunn & Bradstreet (D&B) will also be able to participate in the pre-Authentication program.

Tralliance CEO Meets with World Tourism Organization (WTO)

Ron Andruff met with WTO Deputy Secretary-General, Dawid de Villier, in Madrid, to establish a plan to ensure that the governments of the countries of the world can capitalize on the sole priority right that the .travel Registry will be offering. In keeping with the desires of Government Advisory Committee of ICANN and the Registry’s own policy on this topic, the priority right is being given in respect to country names (in English and in their respective national languages), cities, town, and place names (i.e., important geographies, heritage sites, sacred places, distinct economies, states, provinces, islands, cities, etc.) The priority right will last approximately nine months and will give each country the ability to register their specific names accordingly.

This is the first time that a priority right in domains names has been offered to the countries of the world. Never before has this right been made available during any of the previous top level domain name registration processes. As such, the WTO is keen to ensure that its member states are clearly informed about it, and can act on their respective registrations in a timely manner to ensure that their important city and place names are claimed.

Tralliance CEO Attends 91st Bi-Annual Meeting of ECTAA (Group of National Travel Agents’ and Tour Operators’ Associations within the EU), Lisbon, Portugal, 26-27 May 2005

At the invitation of ECTAA’s Secretary-General, Michel de Blust, Ron Andruff attended the semi annual gathering of the travel agent and tour operator leadership form the European Community, in Lisbon. Mr. Andruff gave a presentation on the .travel initiative and spent time with the delegates clarifying the rights of TTPC Member Associations, particularly with respect to authentication fees. In addition, he underscored that the .travel Registry’s privacy policies ensure that all data submitted by registrants remains the sole property of the registrants themselves and therefore will not be used by Tralliance for any commercial purposes.

The two day event provided ECTAA members ample time to speak further with Mr. Andruff, and afforded both organizations the opportunity to get to know one another. We would like to thank Mr. de Blust for the invitation to attend this important meeting and look forward to working with ECTAA and its broader membership in development of the .travel initiative in the months and years to come.

The “World of .travel” Debuts on TTPC Authenticating Member Websites

As noted in our April Update, as part of the on-going education process, members of authenticating associations (i.e. associations that will be authenticating their own members) as well as regular (non-authenticating) TTPC members, will soon be seeing the logo on their respective association’s Web site homepage. The icon will open the user to the world of .travel, a space that will provide a broad range of information about the .travel initiative, as well as demos of the various processes (authentication, domain name registrations, and the directory) as they are introduced.

Non-affiliated members of the travel trade will be able to access the most up to date .travel information by clicking on the .travel icon on the Tralliance information site www.tralliance.info.

As we now move into operational mode, this Update will be the last of the series of monthly instalments that was initiated on 31 January 2003, 29 Updates ago. To all of you who have taken the time each month to track our progress by reading these emails, ”Thank you!” To those of you who were our silent supporters along the way, we particularly thank you!

We welcome all of you to continue to monitor the .travel Registry’s development via our Tralliance Web site, and urge you to watch for www.travel.travel coming soon!

Thank you again for your support.